Web3 in the Eyes of Youth: A New Opportunity and a Starting Point for Rational Thinking

While many people born in the 80s and 90s are still confused and worried about missing the so-called "Web3 revolution train," some people born in the 00s have already been deeply involved in this field for many years. Among them, some say, "The revolution you see is my daily life."

However, this new track not only has enthusiasm, but also some young pioneers who are starting to think calmly and even reflect. We interviewed four post-00s entrepreneurs who "play" Web3, and their stories and experiences may reflect another side of the industry.

Entering the scene at a young age, starting to explore in adolescence

Meepo, a person from Fujian, was born in 2000 and has now achieved "financial freedom". His standard of definition is having enough assets to buy two houses and two cars in a first-tier city. This is the result of his ten years of experience as a "veteran" in Web3.

Meepo was exposed to Bitcoin in the sixth grade. In 2012, his parents tried Bitcoin mining out of interest, and to prevent him from becoming addicted to games, they encouraged him to study mining, rewarding him with 100 yuan for each coin mined. At that time, a Bitcoin was worth 12 dollars.

Although Bitcoin had not yet seen many practical uses at the time, 2012 was a turning point. This was related to the decline of Nokia phones. Nokia was very popular in China in the past, but prices were lower overseas. To prevent phones sold overseas from entering China, Nokia set up a "software lock." Someone cracked this lock and was able to modify the system to be compatible with Chinese carriers. The method of cracking quickly spread to Huaqiangbei, and using computers to crack Nokia phones entering China from abroad became a distinctive business.

Later, someone invented a GPU acceleration program that allows graphics cards to participate in cracking. This "gray" industry rapidly exploded, with a profit of 200-300 yuan for unlocking a mobile phone, resulting in the earliest batch of GPU "miners".

However, starting in 2012, with the decline of Nokia and increasing competition, the unlocking fee dropped to 10 yuan or even 5 yuan, leading to a significant reduction in profits. It was at this time that Bitcoin GPU mining programs were born. People in Huaqiangbei quickly turned to using GPUs to mine Bitcoin. Suddenly, China saw the emergence of a group of professional Bitcoin mining power, which can be considered the origin of the earliest "miners."

The addition of this group of professional "miners" indirectly led to the premature end of Meepo's mining career. Ordinary laptop computing power was difficult to compete with, and after a year he gave up, giving a small amount of Bitcoin to his parents. "At that time, I didn't make much money," but his interest in blockchain began from then on.

Born in 2003, Zohar was exposed to Bitcoin at an early age. He became interested in finance and economics, and in his first year of high school, he heard about Bitcoin from a school club and self-studied a basic game theory course from Zhejiang University. With his family also playing with Bitcoin, "I initially bought Bitcoin for about 3000 yuan just for fun, but later I basically lost it all."

Zohar currently has multiple identities: a top scorer in the elective subject college entrance examination in a city of Guangdong Province, a first-year student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who has taken a leave of absence to start a business (, a co-initiator of an art DAO, a Web3 investor, and more. He mentioned that the returns from investing in NFTs are around several dozen times, but he cautions young people not to be blinded by short-term wealth.

Emma was younger when she started her blockchain entrepreneurship. She was born in 2006 and is now 16 years old, attending high school in San Jose, California. She heard about Bitcoin from her parents when she was 11, but wasn't very interested. Last year, her internet project made it to the top 10% of the YC training camp. This year, she upgraded the project to a Web3 project, aiming for YC again in hopes of securing investment. The reason for the upgrade is simple: the project's vision needs to rely on blockchain technology to be realized.

Whether it's Meepo, Zohar, or Emma, entering Web3 wasn't a deliberate choice. It's like a programmer at a cryptocurrency exchange suddenly discovers that their field of work has a new title - Web3, and they seem to be worth more. When asked why he thinks Web3 is the future, he thought for a long time and answered: "Isn't what young people like the future?"

"There is no authority here"

For Emma, both Web3 and Web2 entrepreneurship are forms of learning. "I learn through entrepreneurial projects, and when I encounter problems, I look up information or ask others for help," she said. Unlike other Asian kids in the U.S. who focus on exam scores, she spends most of her time on things she is passionate about. "When I am passionate about something, I pursue it and follow what makes me happy."

Emma's father, Kavin Zhang, graduated from Tsinghua University. He believes that most parents set educational goals that are superficial, easy to brag about, and uniform, such as getting into prestigious schools. However, he never demands that Emma also attend a prestigious school; he values his child's independent will and self-discipline more, always asking Emma what she wants to do.

At the age of 9, Emma started writing and has since published 4 novels, currently writing her 8th. In 2020, she established a non-profit online organization to teach others how to write. She discovered that writers struggle to make money solely from writing books, and many do not know how to promote their work. To address these issues, she founded the digital publishing platform Quillmates, which she has now built on blockchain this year and renamed Cypher.

On Cypher, users can publish articles, and readers can "pay to read + invest." Authors can issue tokens, and when the author's value increases, the tokens held by the readers will also appreciate, giving readers the motivation to support and promote the authors. "This is a free market, and popular content will naturally gain more investment space," Emma said. "What I want can only be realized on Web3."

She observed that in the Web2 world, "social media giants like Meta, Google, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter can control and censor any content they want." In contrast, in Web3, there is no central authority, and everyone is a co-owner of the blockchain. "The only way to truly achieve freedom of content is to build it on Web3."

Many people view Web3 as an entry point to a new world, hoping to rewrite the "outdated" business rules set by the old giants. This is also closer to the reasons why the "outsider" youth are trying to enter Web3.

For example, Dinghui fell in love at first sight with the DAO) decentralized autonomous organization(, which is the aspect of Web3 that excites him the most, differing from traditional company structures. This year, he was a co-partner in an NFT project, and a year ago, when he decided to join the Web3 "circle," he had no practical experience with on-chain businesses. Born in 2003 in Shaanxi, Dinghui only completed high school, with 8 years of homeschooling.

In the fifth grade of elementary school, his father, who was a university teacher, arranged for him to drop out, citing the reason that he saw his child "staying up late to do homework every day" and that "he had lost a lot of his talent." Since then, Dinghui has never experienced education within the system again.

Initially, his family helped him find courses and internship programs. In his words, it was to "find his own value by working alongside excellent seniors and predecessors in society." While most people start their first year of high school at that age, Dinghui joined the University Student Association Alliance, became a volunteer, and began doing odd jobs for public accounts, thus entering the new media industry. Since then, he has been interning or working in various projects for nearly 3 years.

Long before the concept of DAO emerged, Ding Hui felt he was already "practicing" DAO. In his second year of high school, he created an online community that brought together hundreds of students who were studying from home, taking leave from school, or had dropped out, "upholding the concept of equality and self-governance for all."

Later, Dinghui apprenticed under a teacher who specialized in educational innovation, learning community operations, writing, and project management. "I feel that the autonomous atmosphere of their team, although lacking smart contracts, is similar to a DAO. In various cities, members can establish branches. They explore a lot in educational innovation, social innovation, and organizational change."

In 2021, Dinghui got into Web3. During his internship in Beijing, he found that more and more people were discussing blockchain and Web3 online. "So I was very surprised when I encountered DAO, and that’s how I got into it." When he first got in touch with Web3, Dinghui spent every day immersed in DAO. In various WeChat groups, he initially couldn't understand the chat content, but felt that he was "always learning." Because he actively spoke in the community, he was recognized and invited to participate in a DAO, and became an operator, "they paid me a salary."

Among young people in the Web3 field, rebellious elements appear with high frequency. Zohar, a top scorer in the college entrance examination, likes to refer to himself as a "bad student" and "enjoys doing things differently." In his first year of high school, Zohar used online course resources to create an independent study plan for himself.

"Why do teachers and schools hope that everyone learns and researches according to a relatively standard rhythm and requirements? I understand that managing so many people requires a unified approach that is suitable for the majority to improve efficiency," Zohar said, "but I don't think I belong to the majority."

Previously, his grades were mediocre, and he rarely attended classes. Through self-study online, he gained a wealth of knowledge and experience for the college entrance examination, later becoming the top student in the city.

Half a year later, he made an unusual choice again. After completing the first semester of his freshman year, Zohar took a leave of absence from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and immersed himself in Web3 entrepreneurship: initiating art-related DAOs and participating in the planning of Europe’s first high-profile crypto art exhibition; later, he also established a cryptocurrency fund and became an investor.

Zohar believes that under the current circumstances, it is difficult for ordinary people to realize their own value, obtain considerable returns, or even cross social classes, but "Web3 provides a greater space for imagination and hope, and in this wave, everyone’s influence may be amplified." This is mainly reflected in the speed of wealth transfer being fast enough. Whether online or at conferences, legends about blockchain financial freedom can be seen everywhere, making them believe that everyone participating in Web3 might achieve extraordinary wealth.

Young people yearn to subvert authority and even become the so-called "authority" themselves. But what are the odds of becoming that lucky one?

![Young People Diving into Web3: Curious, Fanatical, and Rational])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-297635ecd95b9067960cca473158591e.webp(

"Cut" and "Being Cut"

When Zohar communicates with the project team, if he doesn't say it, no one knows he is only 18 years old. "This is the anonymity of Web3."

Indeed. Our interviews are conducted over the phone, and I have no idea what the other party looks like. In fact, it is also inconvenient for me to ask the other party to provide identification, household registration, educational certificates, business registration proof, etc., just to verify the truth of what they are saying.

I tried to cross-verify the authenticity through their acquaintances. But it cannot be completely guaranteed. For example, I cannot fully verify their claim of discussing nearly 20 entrepreneurial projects every week; someone did more than 20 internships related to securities, large companies, and exchanges during college; or the actual return rate of investing in cryptocurrencies. If the other party wants to deceive me, it would likely be relatively easy.

This is the norm in the Web3 entrepreneurial circle. A friend who works at Binance once reminded me, "Don't fully believe what people in the crypto circle say; take off a zero from the wealth they mention and then cut it in half."

"There are wealth myths in this circle, but they are rare." Meepo said.

After getting involved with the Ethereum network in 2014, Meepo participated and met many project teams. "Many people in the early days later became big shots in the industry." Later, he formed a community and gradually grew it. By promoting project teams in the group, Meepo obtained some "insider information," such as the fact that a large amount of funds would come in at a certain point in time, so he went for arbitrage. "Around 2018, I slowly became financially free."

"Many people in the community have also made money because of this, and everyone gradually trusts me and has become my fan."

I was surprised by Meepo's honesty when he admitted that to some extent, he also achieved financial freedom by "cutting leeks."

"How to make money in the crypto world? It’s about making money from the opacity of information." He has seen some domestic VCs who became overnight millionaires by going all in early on, and then quickly exited Web3 to invest in other fields. "What many Web3 project teams say about doing things based on faith and consensus is all false; once each of them has made enough money, they will no longer talk about consensus."

We were silent for a moment on the phone. Meepo then said, "Although I don't like this way, I believe personal interests come above everything else." "If we are to say...